


To Rule

by ElAlmaDelMar



Series: A/B/O/tober 2020 [29]
Category: One Piece
Genre: Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Gen, Just a meditation on crew dynamics really, not beta read we die like men, through Law's eyes because he's an interesting POV character
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-29
Updated: 2020-10-29
Packaged: 2021-03-09 00:29:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,389
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27275728
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ElAlmaDelMar/pseuds/ElAlmaDelMar
Summary: It wasn't as though Law didn't know what he meant.You're an omega.Not three months they'd been at sea as a proper pirate crew, picking up companions and experience before making for Reverse Mountain and the Grand Line, but he was already sick to death of people constantly making assumptions.A/B/O/tober Day 29: Pack hierarchy
Relationships: Monkey D. Luffy & Mugiwara Kaizoku | Strawhat Pirates
Series: A/B/O/tober 2020 [29]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1947415
Comments: 7
Kudos: 180
Collections: A/B/O/tober 2020





	To Rule

"Ah, rooms for your whole crew?" the innkeeper asked. "We've got a whole block available tonight, if you all want to sleep separately. I know things shipboard can be cramped." There was a minute pause, a flare of nostrils, and then he looked at Penguin. "... Captain…?" 

Law cleared his throat. " _I'm_ the captain," he said, low and unamused. 

"Ah! Forgive me, forgive me." The innkeeper bobbed his head apologetically. "I just— I mean, you're…" Failing to find a way to end that sentence that wouldn't raise his risk of the fledgling Heart Pirates leaving to seek a different inn for their shore leave, he trailed off, then tried again. "My apologies, Captain, sir." 

It wasn't as though Law didn't know what he meant. _You're an omega._ Not three months they'd been at sea as a proper pirate crew, picking up companions and experience before making for Reverse Mountain and the Grand Line, but he was already sick to death of people constantly making assumptions. It wasn't even that they were consciously deciding that an omega couldn't be a captain, most of them — they just looked at the crew and naturally gravitated toward Penguin, who was the only alpha among them so far, or Bepo who was huge, intimidating (so long as he kept his mouth shut) and exotic. But Law — a skinny teenaged omega — no, no one looked at him and thought _captain_.

* * *

It got better over time. Through relentless experimentation, Law finally found a suppressant strong enough to completely mask his scent but not so strong it made him sick. He earned a name for himself as the Surgeon of Death, and tattooed it across his knuckles for good measure. He earned a bounty and a reputation, and finally, when people looked at the Heart Pirates, they immediately looked to _him_ as the captain. 

"Hey, captain!" It was Shachi, just coming from a bartering session with the News Coo. He waggled a newspaper at Law, grinning. "Look, they did a thing about you!" 

Indeed they had — not only about him, but he was right there, alongside a list of others. 

_Eleven Supernovas — Who will become Pirate King?_

Law raised an eyebrow and snorted at the headline. Pirate King… well, he wouldn't be opposed to the idea, but that wasn't what he was going to the New World for. Anything like that would only come after he'd achieved his goal. 

But even so, he ran his eyes down the list. Names he'd heard, names he knew from existing bounty posters. 

Capone Bege. Jewelry Bonney. X Drake. Uroge. Scratchmen Apoo. Himself, of course. Eustass Kidd. Killer. Basil Hawkins. Roronoa Zoro. Monkey D. Luffy. 

_Another D. Very interesting._

And beside each name, a picture — obviously cribbed from bounty posters — and a brief description. What they looked like, the name of their crew, what abilities they had. Their gender. 

Alpha, alpha, alpha. It shouldn't be surprising that most of the list were alphas. Of course they were — that was the way of the sea, wasn't it? In nature, before humans formed real societies, alphas led packs. Now that they had a society, alphas were usually the ones taking charge, and especially when it came to pirate crews, which were as close as one could get to those prehistoric packs. 

A few were listed like Law. _Unknown._ He was pleased with that categorization. It made him mysterious, rather than an anomalous omega. There were no omegas on the list — a couple betas, he noted, including Kidd's first mate Killer. (Sounded like overcompensation.) 

Strawhat Luffy and Pirate Hunter Zoro, he noted, were both alphas, and were captain and first mate. That sounded like a recipe for contention. Not that an alpha couldn't be a good subordinate — Penguin had never given him any particular problems, nor had Ikkaku — but the two of them in the lead like that? Hm.

* * *

Two years later, he had the opportunity to see that working relationship up close. The Strawhat Pirates were a force of echoing chaos, but they worked together in a way that spoke _volumes_ for how such a tiny and chaotic crew had made the world tremble as they had. 

Four alphas out of nine — nearly half their crew were alphas, which from the start should have made things challenging. Captain, first mate, navigator, historian. In any other crew, it would have been a constant battle for control — and a constant simmering mistrust. Most mutinies were led by first mates, after all. And on the Grand Line, a navigator was in a uniquely powerful position. Historians, he wasn't so certain about, but Nico Robin had a reputation all her own for destroying whole fleets, let alone single small pirate crews. 

Before he met any of them, he had assumed that Strawhat would have to be strong and overbearing to keep his alpha first mate in line. But no, he was the farthest thing from it. And yet, the other two alphas seemed to have no objection to their captain, the alpha of their pack, acting like an inattentive child; in fact, they treated him like a younger brother, alternately chiding and indulging him. They wore his scent willingly — and Law watched in fascination as Luffy scented his pack almost constantly, hanging on them or leaning on them or just finding his way into their space whenever possible. And they all accepted it, every one. 

In fact, if there were any dominance fights going on among the Strawhats, they were — of all things! — between the alpha first mate and the _omega_ cook. The two of them were in each other's faces constantly, looking for any little excuse to start trouble, and everyone seemed to accept this as little more than a passing irritation. 

It was watching the cook as they all sailed to Dressrosa, though, that gave Law the key he needed to unlock the mystery of the Strawhat crew. In the galley, and at mealtimes, the cook was the dominant force. When it came to the crew's eating, no one challenged Sanji for control. Even Luffy, the captain and the head alpha, would _beg_ for food — a supplicant, not a commander. 

That unlocked it — how they all worked well together, how their loud and brash personalities fitted together with so little friction. Each, in his or her domain, was in charge — and Luffy deferred to them just as the rest of the crew did. He recruited not subordinates but experts in their work, and while Law was sure the younger captain would never put it in such words, Luffy trusted them to know what they were about and willingly handed them the reins in their particular areas of expertise. And they repaid him by staying within those areas. Nami was an astonishingly talented navigator and helmsman, but made no attempt to supplant Zoro as first mate. Zoro and Sanji were constantly in each other's faces, but neither made the slightest move to undermine the other's standing as a member of the crew, confining their oddly antagonistic relationship to bickering and fights that Law slowly realized were more like impromptu (and very loud) sparring sessions. 

Three members of the crew, he noted, were either heavily suppressed or simply didn't seem to _have_ a noticeable secondary gender. Brook, of course, gave off no pheremonal scent cues, and Law wasn't inclined to ask him outright. Cyborg Franky gave off scents that were purely confusing; Law wouldn't have put it past him to have invented an entirely new gender when he put himself back together. Somehow. Or something like that. 

But each of them, secondary gender notwithstanding, was a master in his or her own domain. And they treated each other's domains and each other's mastery with respect, as much respect as any pirate would give a captain. It was as though they became — not quite captain, because they still acted at Luffy's direction, but something almost like it. Luffy gave out authority willingly, knowing that when he needed to step forward, they would hand it back to him. 

And that, Law came to believe as their alliance went on, was why Luffy would become Pirate King. He _wasn't_ a pack leader, but only first among a band of equals. Something unique and special in this world of brutal domination. 

He really wanted to stick around to see it happen, too.


End file.
